Mobile technology I’d be thankful for
Thanksgiving. It’s the time of the year to be thankful for what you have, who’s in your life and your general well-being. I know I have much to be thankful for: a supportive family that let me take a massive pay cut to write full time, great friends and community here at jkOnTheRun, and the satisfaction of helping people and having great discussion in the tech space. I don’t want to take any of that for granted, but I do want to put a little twist on this Thanksgiving. That’s why I’m listing out mobile technology items that I’d be very thankful to see. Enjoy your holiday plans and safe travels if you’re on the road today.
Mobile technology I’d be thankful for:
- A conversion process and deal by Amazon to convert prior eBook purchases to the Kindle format for a small fee.
- A2DP Bluetooth support on the Apple iPhone.
- The abolishment of cellular voice contracts.
- A WaWa convenience store in every town. OK, that’s off-topic, but I like their coffee.
- Wireless links in auto navigation systems so I can type addresses in Google Maps at home, look them up and send the directions to the car. I’m tired of typing addresses in the car on inefficient virtual keyboards.
- Full voice recognition in every nav system; that would wipe the above item from my list.
- An exciting Palm device with a new Linux-based OS before the end of 2008.
- Mobile device batteries that last two to three times longer, but don’t increase in weight or size.
- A touch-friendly version of Windows; not just a shell that runs on top of it, a full version.
- More applications that are ink-enabled.
- Pay-per-use WWAN subscriptions that don’t cost an arm and a leg since most people are forced to get an unlimited plan today in the U. S.
- Unlimited plans that are truly unlimited. No ifs, ands, buts, or upper limits.
- Faster FiOS rollouts.
- A Nokia Internet Tablet designed by Mike Cane.
- WiFi and chairs in every WaWa. There; I’ve redeemed the earlier faux-pas on the list.
- Nintendo Wiis in every nursing home and adult care facility.
- Hyperlink areas that are bigger on devices with touchscreens. Surely someone smart can expand the activiation area beyond the text.
- 100,000 subscribers to jkOnTheRun.
Ok, the last one I just threw in there for good measure. In truth, I’m thankful for every reader and subscriber here. Surely I missed things that you would be thankful for, so if you have time before your turkey, drop one in the comments below.
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Windows Mobile 7 device or as they are calling it now Photon
oh, I forgot
Pocket Informant Evo
Flexmail 2008
I like your list, but as long as contracts aren’t mandatory for buying/using a phone at all (like it is with the iPhone) and come with reasonable discounts on the phone (a quick glance at AT&T’s website shows $100-$150 off the price of most phones with 2-year contract) I’m ok with them. I mean, really, who wants to change carriers every 6 months to a year anyway? And if you want out so bad, usually you just pay back the money you saved on getting the phone.
Be smart about it, don’t just try to buy every phone that catches your whimsy, make sure you know what you can and can’t do with rate plan and features, and contracts will work for you, not against you.
PS Checking around, with 900+ minute rate plans on a 2-year contract you can get an AT&T Tilt from LetsTalk.com for $125 after rebates. Compare that to going the completely unlocked route for a Tytn II from Dynamism: $800. Viva la contracts!
How about GPS on your iPhone? I like your Wii idea. I don’t support the cell contract request, though… as much as it sucks for geeks and early adopters like you and I, it allows the carriers to seriously subsidize handsets for the masses. Verizon and Sprint’s proposal to tier the cancellation fee based on subscription length seems like a decent compromise. Though I always factor in $200 when buying new phones, assuming I’ll jump ship. (Which is why most of my phones I’ve bought at serious discount through Amazon. My last purchase was a Blackjack for “free.”)
I just found out that Verizon actually makes you sign/extend your contract whenever you want to change your rate plan, even if it’s adding minutes/messaging features. Now THAT is bad.
I saw on a forum that the kindle uses (or at least can read) the mobi format. This probably won’t help you with any heavily DRM’ed content, but it might be worth a shot anyway.
You could try out the conversion utilities on this site http://www.mobipocket.com/dev/article.asp?BaseFolder=prcgen&File=building.htm
Put the converted files on an SD disk and see if it worked. I can’t find the link to the forum post I found, and I would be interested to know if it worked for you, as I don’t have EVDO in my area, so without this the kindle would be pretty useless.
Kevin, that’s a nice list. (As usual!)
I don’t disagree with any one of them, though not all would be for me. I’d like to see A2DP support on all devices where it would make sense, as in phones and MP3 players. I’d even trade in wireless support on my Zune.
Happy Thanksgiving to all in the Tofel house.
Woadan
Kevin, love your list.
YES, yes a thousand times yes for a WaWa on every corner. Every time I visit home (Philly) my first stop is WaWa.
But I do have to agree with others.
Carrier services are not the worse thing in the world they way they are, phones continue to drop in price because of subsidization and I personally think Sprint, Verizon and AT&T changing their ETF fees is because they were starting to feel the heat. Better they “voluntarily” create a plan than have the Feds force it on them.
That said, I’m cool with a two year contract to get the phone I like/want at a cheaper price.
I join with all others calling for Microsoft to re-think their OS specifically for the device instead of continuing the “one size (better damn well!) fit all.”
I agree with everyone else about a great list!
I think for us Canadians (north of the USA), we’d definitely would be thankful for:
- a relaxation of the foreign ownership rules of cellular carriers so there’s no longer a monopoly. (Yes, there are 3 main national carriers: 2 CDMA and 1 GSM but believe me, they all operate as a monopoly)
- abolishment of the profit grab of $6.95 also known as the System Access Fee, that has nothing to do with taxes, or government imposed fees but simply a fee that just get tacked on each month
- introduction of a fair, reasonable unlimited data plan, or even a reasonable pay per use data price. But hopefully Bell Mobiliity’s $7 unlimited with HTC Touch contract plan will change that.
- more Wi-Fi coverage in Canada or better yet, adoption of the Wi-Max so that those in rural areas can still access wireless rather than being stuck with pricey data charges
- a real working mobile browser for all the main mobile platforms (Palm OS, Win Mobile, Symbian, etc). Right now, wireless surfing is so crippled that you really can’t do much except view a web page. Hopefully more will support Adobe’s lite Flash so at least we can view flash sites.
I wouldn’t hold my breath for any of my wishes to come true any time in the future, but I am hopeful though.